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Physical Review A

Dressed-mode theory of optical bistability

Luigi A. Lugiato

Published Jul 1, 1983• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We devise a procedure to obtain an analytical treatment of self-pulsing in optical bistability, which is parallel to that of the dressed-mode theory but does not require evaluation of the eigenvalues of the linearized equations. Our analysis shows that the uniform---stationary-field approximation does not forbid our arriving at the correct final equations in the mean-field limit.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.28.483

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Analysis of self-pulsing in absorptive optical bistability

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We review and extend the theory of instabilities in absorptive optical bistability for ring cavities containing homogeneously broadened two-level media. The instabilities occur in the high-transmission branch and result in either a precipitation to the low-transmission branch or in pulsed multimode operation. Two numerical approaches are used to predict operation away from the simple mean-field limit. First, an iterative method is used to solve the general field eigenvalue equation for cavity modes with frequencies displaced from the input frequency. This work shows that the instability region decreases in size as the mirror transmission increases. These calculations are confirmed by the second numerical technique, consisting of direct integrations of the coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations. This second approach also provides time histories of the instability evolutions, and divides the instability range into a precipitation regime and a self-pulsing regime. The results are discussed in terms of first- and second-order phase transitions, and agree with the analytical results obtained within the dressed-mode description of optical bistability. They show that when the incident field is adiabatically decreased along the high-transmission branch, the spiking behavior always appears abruptly. By further decreasing the incident intensity, the self-pulsing disappears either continuously if the system remains in the high-transmission branch, or discontinuously if the system precipitates to the low-transmission branch. Connection is made with induced probe gain known in the saturation spectroscopy of absorbers (uninverted media), in which population pulsations transfer energy from a saturating wave to the probe waves. The very close relationship with multimode operation in homogeneously broadened unidirectional ring lasers is also established.

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Beyond the mean-field theory of dispersive optical bistability

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Self-pulsing in other optical systems

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This chapter concludes the discussion about temporal instabilities and self-oscillations, considering the instabilities that arise in the systems analyzed in Chapter 13, with the exception of optical bistability, which has been discussed separately in Chapter 11. Section 25.1 focuses on the laser with an injected signal. As already mentioned in Section 13.1, in this system self-pulsing instabilities are rather ubiquitous, and on exploring the parameter space one meets an extremely rich variety of oscillatory behaviors. For example, under extremely high-gain conditions, breathing, spiking and chaos have been identified over various ranges of the driving field strength [294]. In this section we show some results that arise under parametric conditions that are more accessible experimentally. We illustrate especially the coexistence, for the same parametric values, of different oscillatory behaviors that are reached by starting from different initial conditions. On the other hand, Section 25.2 deals with a laser with a saturable absorber. In this system even the full scenario of stationary intensity solutions in the single-mode model is very complex. For the sake of simplicity, in this section we focus on a simpler rate-equation model that is obtained from the single-mode model of Eqs. (13.13)–(13.17) by adiabatically eliminating the atomic polarization of both active and passive medium. As in Chapter 13, we assume that the atomic transition frequencies are equal and also coincide with a cavity frequency. In this way all the variables in the model can be assumed real, and the linearization around the stationary solution described in Section 13.2 leads to a cubic eigenvalue equation. The spontaneous oscillations which arise from this instability are called repetitive passive Q-switching in the literature. Section 25.3 considers the stability of the stationary solutions of the degenerate optical parametric oscillator described in Section 13.4 and outlines the scenario of period doubling and chaos that arises under appropriate parametric conditions.

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•Aug 1, 1988•0 citations
We devise a procedure to obtain an analytical treatment of self-pulsing in optical bistability, which is parallel to that of the dressed-mode theory but does not require evaluation of the eigenvalues of the linearized equations. Our analysis shows that the uniform---stationary-field approximation does not forbid our arriving at the correct final equations in the mean-field limit.
The eigenvalue equation for absorptive bistability in a ring cavity is analyzed in the mean-field limit. Perturbative solutions are obtained in two distinct limits: $\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\ll}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}},{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ and $\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}},{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, where $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ and ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$,${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ are field and atomic damping rates, respectively. For $\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}},{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, the eigenvalues satisfy a cubic equation, derived previously in the theory of self-pulsing in absorptive bistability. For $\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\ll}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}},{\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$, while the "dressed-field-mode" eigenvalues are solutions to this cubic equation, the "dressed-atomic-mode" eigenvalues are not.
A single-mode dynamic equation is obtained from the Maxwell equation with the slowly-varying amplitude approximation, and the boundary conditions of the cavity. Here the mean-field limit and the good-quality cavity case have been used. This equation is useful in describing the dynamic behavior of intrinsic optical bistable systems and/or lasers with injected signals for any kinds of materials, including two-level atoms. Furthermore, according to the linear stability analysis, a generalized instability criterion is derived.
We review and extend the theory of instabilities in absorptive optical bistability for ring cavities containing homogeneously broadened two-level media. The instabilities occur in the high-transmission branch and result in either a precipitation to the low-transmission branch or in pulsed multimode operation. Two numerical approaches are used to predict operation away from the simple mean-field limit. First, an iterative method is used to solve the general field eigenvalue equation for cavity modes with frequencies displaced from the input frequency. This work shows that the instability region decreases in size as the mirror transmission increases. These calculations are confirmed by the second numerical technique, consisting of direct integrations of the coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations. This second approach also provides time histories of the instability evolutions, and divides the instability range into a precipitation regime and a self-pulsing regime. The results are discussed in terms of first- and second-order phase transitions, and agree with the analytical results obtained within the dressed-mode description of optical bistability. They show that when the incident field is adiabatically decreased along the high-transmission branch, the spiking behavior always appears abruptly. By further decreasing the incident intensity, the self-pulsing disappears either continuously if the system remains in the high-transmission branch, or discontinuously if the system precipitates to the low-transmission branch. Connection is made with induced probe gain known in the saturation spectroscopy of absorbers (uninverted media), in which population pulsations transfer energy from a saturating wave to the probe waves. The very close relationship with multimode operation in homogeneously broadened unidirectional ring lasers is also established.
The problem of dispersive optical bistability has so far been treated only in the mean-field approximation. A rigorous justification of the mean-field theory can only be obtained from exact solutions of the steadystate Maxwell-Bloch equations which retain the spatial dependence of the field. In this paper exact analytic solutions are presented for these equations. The authors demonstrate that the mean-field equation connecting the input and the output fields follows naturally from these solutions in the limits $T\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{F}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, and $\ensuremath{\alpha}L\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$ for the mirror transmission coefficient, the detuning of the field from the cavity resonance, and the linear absorption, respectively, with $\frac{\ensuremath{\alpha}L}{2T}$ and $\frac{{\ensuremath{\delta}}_{F}L}{2cT}$ remaining finite. The results are illustrated with the help of graphs showing the output versus input intensity for different values of the relevant parameters. The effect of these parameters on the phase shift of the output field is also displayed.
This chapter concludes the discussion about temporal instabilities and self-oscillations, considering the instabilities that arise in the systems analyzed in Chapter 13, with the exception of optical bistability, which has been discussed separately in Chapter 11. Section 25.1 focuses on the laser with an injected signal. As already mentioned in Section 13.1, in this system self-pulsing instabilities are rather ubiquitous, and on exploring the parameter space one meets an extremely rich variety of oscillatory behaviors. For example, under extremely high-gain conditions, breathing, spiking and chaos have been identified over various ranges of the driving field strength [294]. In this section we show some results that arise under parametric conditions that are more accessible experimentally. We illustrate especially the coexistence, for the same parametric values, of different oscillatory behaviors that are reached by starting from different initial conditions. On the other hand, Section 25.2 deals with a laser with a saturable absorber. In this system even the full scenario of stationary intensity solutions in the single-mode model is very complex. For the sake of simplicity, in this section we focus on a simpler rate-equation model that is obtained from the single-mode model of Eqs. (13.13)–(13.17) by adiabatically eliminating the atomic polarization of both active and passive medium. As in Chapter 13, we assume that the atomic transition frequencies are equal and also coincide with a cavity frequency. In this way all the variables in the model can be assumed real, and the linearization around the stationary solution described in Section 13.2 leads to a cubic eigenvalue equation. The spontaneous oscillations which arise from this instability are called repetitive passive Q-switching in the literature. Section 25.3 considers the stability of the stationary solutions of the degenerate optical parametric oscillator described in Section 13.4 and outlines the scenario of period doubling and chaos that arises under appropriate parametric conditions.